Jewish Book Month at JCC: Mark Arsenault, author of “The Imposter’s War”

Mark Arsenault’s “The Imposter’s War” is the shock­ing his­to­ry of the espi­onage and infil­tra­tion of Amer­i­can media dur­ing WWI and a riv­et­ing nar­ra­tive of the courageous newsman who changed the course of history by exposing it.

In the lead-up to America’s entry into World War I, Ger­many spent the mod­ern equiv­a­lent of $1 bil­lion to infil­trate Amer­i­can media, indus­try, and gov­ern­ment to under­mine the sup­ply chain of the Allied forces. If not for the cease­less activ­i­ty of John Rev­el­stoke Rath­om, edi­tor of the scrap­py Prov­i­dence Jour­nal, Amer­i­ca may have remained com­mit­ted to its posi­tion of neu­tral­i­ty.

And yet John Rath­om was not even his real name. Who then was this great, beloved, and ulti­mate­ly trag­ic imposter? In “The Imposter’s War,” Mark Arse­nault unearths the truth about Rathom’s ori­gins and revis­its a sur­re­al and too-lit­tle-known pas­sage in Amer­i­can his­to­ry that rever­ber­ates today.

Includes book signing and light reception.